Before the political upheaval started in the state, injury sustained by a police horse named Shaktiman during an anti- government protest demonstration by Opposition BJP also dominated the national scene. The horse sustained injuries on one of its hind legs after getting entangled in a hole. BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi was charged with lashing the horse during the demonstration causing its collapse and was arrested.
In the hot political atmosphere of the election-bound state, Rawat was also accused of being hand-in-glove with the mining, land and liquor mafia prompting BJP to go to people of the state with these issues through a parivartan yatra which was addressed by prominent party leaders like its chief Amit Shah and Union ministers Manohar Parrikar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Suresh Prabhu, Radhamohan Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan and J P Nadda.
The 16th year of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, was indeed a defining, coming-of-age year also for Indian democracy as the prolonged face-off between the state and the Centre caused the courts to pull up the executive for the haste with which it had acted.
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The trouble was triggered by the discontent long smoldering in the Vijay Bahuguna camp of the ruling Congress since denial of ministerial berths or significant PCC positions to his loyalists and a Rajya Sabha ticket to himself.
Unprecedented pandemonium ensued in the House as BJP MLAs and the nine Congress rebels together demanded a division of votes on the legislation. The House was later adjourned amid prevailing din and the appropriation bill was declared as passed.
In view of the prevailing circumstances, the Governor
MLAs who had rebelled against Rawat by standing in solidarity with Opposition legislators in the assembly were served show cause notices under the anti-defection law by the Speaker prompting BJP and rebel Congress MLAs to accuse him of acting as a Congress leader despite occupying a constitutional post.
The Home Ministry immediately sent the CD to Chandigarh- based Forensic Lab for testing which submitted its report urgently. The Cabinet recommended imposition of President's rule in the state citing collapse of constitutional machinery and took the President's assent.
Citing Constitutional breakdown, the state was brought under President's rule on March 27, just a day before the government was to go for a floor test. In the afternoon the Speaker disqualified the rebel MLAs.
The political crisis apparently blew over with the intervention of the courts which asked Rawat to go for a court monitored floor test in a house with a substantially reduced strength sans the rebel MLAs.
The disqualified MLAs were not allowed to vote in the floor test and the chief minister scraped through the exercise paving the way for his reinstatement in the top office in less than two months of his dramatic ouster.
Though the political crisis apparently ended with Rawat's reinduction in office, the period that followed saw a lot of inveighing between the two warring sides with the ruling Congress holding the Centre responsible for the crisis and Opposition BJP blaming rifts within the government and the communication gap between an autocratic chief minister and his MLAs for the mess.